User blog:Leolab/User Siege Tourney, Round 1 of 91: Leolab vs Utter Noob
Prologue Markus Thaowan walks into a small room in a Library. Like the others, he has no idea how her got here, just that he was expected to fight in sieges. He spots the door just as Lloyd opens it and leaves, tossing Markus a lazy salute. "I thought you called us in here, Lloyd?" he asked accusingly. "I've been called to fight. Not unexpected that I'm first, but still at bad moment." Markus nods, and continues in to the room, taking a chair at the large, circular table, scanning around at the nine other generals, and that odd cat of Austonio's. Cadwalader stands up, and begins to speak. "Thank you all for coming. I'll make this brief - Lloyd and I thought it best for all of us to work together when we're not besieging each other. None of us knows how we got here, or even where "here" is..." Celina stands up quickly, saying "I'm fighting, too. But I agree. I must hurry." She leaves the room. "Back on topic, we need to figure out what the hell is going on," Cadwalader continues, "Though we need to be careful. This library should make a good meeting place, since we need to seem to meet by chance." "I agree," Markus said, "After all, they can find out where we are quite easily." "THERE ARE NO GODDAMN BEES, NICHOLAS!" Everyone turns, somewhat stunned, to Austonio, who is yelling at his cat. Attackers General *Weapons: **Long Range: Composite Recurve Bow with poisoned armor-piercing arrows **Polearm: Halberd (axe head opposite a slotted dismounting hook; shaft ends in a pike). **Main-hand: Talwar **Off-hand: short axe (2 ft handle) *Armor: Riveted Plated Mail Will issue challenges when losing or if confident of a win. Will not accept if enemy is nearly routed, but is likely to otherwise. Army Siege Weaponry: *All units are armored with riveted plated mail and a barbute *3 15 inch Cannons with standard iron ball shot. **3 people per canon; secondary is a short axe and a tower shield *1 Mining Team **20 people per team; secondary is a Falcata-style shortsword and a dagger. *1 Trebuchet launching clusters of rocks, jars of Greek Fire, and pieces of dead bodies **10 people on the Trebuchet, secondary is a Kilij and kite shield *3 Ladder Teams **15 people per team, secondary is a short axe and an Aspis shield *1 Battering Ram; wood log with metal tip. Has wooden siding to protect from arrows. Thin sheets of metal are put on the siding to resist fire. **16 people on the ram; secondary weapon is an Aspis shield and a short spear *1 Belfry; metal-plated wood **25 people pushing the Belfry, secondary for 12 is a Zweihander, secondary for 12 is a Khanda, secondary for 1 (leader) is a Kilij. *1 overall commander for siege weaponry wearing Riveted Plated Mail and a Barbute **Specialized weapon: European-style Bastard Sword and Buckler **Secondary Weapon: Kilij and Buckler Supply Lines: Organized into two sections: attacking the defender's supply lines and defending my own. There is one overall commander for both. Command in the field is given on a rotating basis based on seniority. *Attack defender's: **219 Heavy Cavalry wearing full plate armor with barbute ***Specialized Weapon: Kontos Spear ***Secondary Weapon: Tabarzin ***Horse armor: Plate **218 Light Cavalry wearing Chihal'Ta Hazar Masha (Coat of 10,000 Nails) over plate bracers and greaves with barbute ***Specialized Weapon: Talwar ***Secondary Weapon: Composite Recurve Shortbow ***Horse Armor: Riveted Plated Mail *Defend my own: **218 Heavy Cavalry wearing full plate armor & Barbute ***Specialized Weapon: Kontos Spear ***Secondary Weapon: Tabarzin ***Horse armor: Plate **219 Light Cavalry wearing Chihal'Ta Hazar Masha (Coat of 10,000 Nails) under plate bracers and greaves & barbute ***Specialized Weapon: Talwar ***Secondary Weapon: Composite Recurve Shortbow ***Horse Armor: Riveted Plated Mail *Commander: **Full plate armor ***Specialized Weapon: Poleaxe ***Secondary Weapon: Mace ***Horse armor: Plate Crossbowmen: *Organized into divisions of 500 men, further divided into squads with 10 crossbowmen and 10 loaders. All members are capable crossbowmen and can fill in if others are hurt. *500 Crossbowmen wearing Riveted plated mail & Barbute: **Specialized Weapon: Arbalest Crossbow **Secondary Weapon: Axe and Buckler *500 Loaders wearing Riveted plated mail & Barbute: **Specialized Weapon: Arbalest Crossbow **Secondary Weapon: Axe and Buckler *25 Squad Commanders wearing Laminar Armor & Barbute: **Specialized Weapon: Arbalest Crossbow **Secondary Weapon: Spatha and Buckler *2 Division Commanders wearing Chihal'Ta Hazar Masha (Coat of 10,000 Nails) over Riveted Chainmail & Barbute: **Specialized Weapon: Arbalest Crossbow **Secondary Weapon: Dual 45-cm Khanda-style shortswords *1 Crossbow Commander wearing Riveted Plated Chainmail: **Specialized Weapon: Arbalest Crossbow **Secondary Weapon: Khanjar and Buckler Shock Troops *Organized into divisions of 500 men, further divided into squads with 20 men each. *2000 Shock Troops wearing full plate armor & Armet **Specialized weapon: Poleaxe (axe-head, pike point, dismounting hook) **Secondary weapon: Dual short warhammers (hammer, hook) *100 Squad Leaders wearing full plate over chainmail and an Armet **Specialized Weapon: Leucerne Hammer (hammer, pike point, hook) **Secondary weapon: Dual short axes (axehead, hook) *4 Division Leaders wearing Laminar and an Armet **Specialized Weapon: Short Spear and Aspis **Secondary Weapon: Shortsword and Aspis *1 Overall Leader wearing plate armor over Riveted plated chainmail with a Bascinet (he's a big guy) **Special: Leucerne Hammer (hammer, pike point, hook) **Secondary: warhammer and plated, spiked targe. Infantry *Organized into brigades of 2500 men, then into divisions of 500, then squads of 20. *5000 Infantrymen wearing riveted plated mail & Barbute **Specialized weapon: short spear & buckler **Secondary Weapon: axe and buckler *250 squad leaders wearing laminar over leather & Barbute **Specialized weapon: short Axe and spiked, plated Targe **Secondary weapon: Swordbreaker and spiked, plated targe *10 division leaders wearing lamellar over chainmail **Specialized weapon: Swordbreaker and buckler **Secondary Weapon: Broadsword and Buckler *2 brigade leaders wearing Chihal'Ta Hazar Masha (Coat of 10,000 Nails) over leather & Barbute **Specialized Weapon: Broadsword and Dagger **Secondary Weapon: Kopis and Dagger *1 overall leader wearing a metal breastplate over plated chainmail and Barbute **Specialized weapon: Kopis & plated targe **Secondary weapon: short spear & plated targe Reserve *Organized into squads of 20 men each *60 Reserve Members wearing Chihal'Ta Hazar Masha (Coat of 10,000 Nails) & Barbute **Specialized weapon: Kilij and Buckler **Secondary Weapon: Swordbreaker and buckler *3 squad leaders wearing Chihal'Ta Hazar Masha (Coat of 10,000 Nails) & Bascinet **Specialized weapon: Swordbreaker & Buckler **Secondary weapon: Axe and Buckler *1 Leader wearing Chihal'Ta Hazar Masha (Coat of 10,000 Nails) with Burgonet Support *536 people producing necessary materials for siege engines **Secondary weapon: Pata and buckler *2 High Marshals wearing Brigandine over Chihal'Ta Hazar Masha (Coat of 10,000 Nails) w/ halfhelm **Specialized weapon: dual Pata-style shortswords **Secondary Weapon: Dual Katars *10 General's Guard wearing full plate over leather w/ close helm **Specialized weapon: Longsword and Kite Shield **Secondary Weapon: Pata and Kite Shield *1 General's Guard Captain wearing full plate over leather w/ Kachi kabuto **Specialized weapon: Longsword and Tower Shield **Secondary Weapon: Pata and tower Shield Strategy *Intercept enemy supply lines & protect own *Harass defenders on walls with crossbowmen *Launch any enemy dead or post-interrogation POWs over in trebuchets *When dead or living are unavaliable, launch Greek Fire in and bombard walls with canon and trebuchet fire while trying to batter down doors or get ladders & belfry in, though the belfry is often used as a decoy. *Shock Troops are used in critical junctures, but are also used as diversions. *Infantry is used after entrance is made in walls, via ladders, or by the belfry. *General's Guard protects the general, High Marshals are given command during large periods of activity. *Leads from a few ranks behind the front. *Reserve is put in where needed. *Focused solely on capturing. Doesn't care if all enemy fighters are killed or none are. *Stringent anti-infiltration measures *All orders are written in code. Redundant messengers are used to ensure order reaches the officers. Defenders General Will not accept 1 on 1 combat requests Weapons Main hand-Gladius Off hand-Scutum Polearm-Pilum Ranged-Arcuballista Armor-Plate armor with steel armet helmet Army Tactics Defence-Catapault bombardments/archers/(when enemies penetrate fort or when out of archers) tetsudo formation Defense 3,000 10 8 pound cannons with grapeshot, 8 pound cannon balls and 5 man crews each cannon. Crews armed with dolabra axe and szabla. 4,250 crossbowmen armed with polish crossbows (with bayonets allowed) and a gladius 200 officers armed with polish crossbows (with bayonet if allowed) and xiphos 2,750 men armed with piliums and scutums. 250 officers armed with scutums and dolabras X-Factors: These X-Factors are created by taking averages from the X-Factor evaluation blog, rounded to the nearest number. I did not choose them. There is no bias. Notes *Area is as follows: **A square, stone fort with a tower at each corner and one in the center. It is on a hill, but has no other natural barriers. Castle is 100 m x 100 m x 125 m. Towers have a 10 m radius and are 150 m tall. The fighting is mostly close-quarters in small areas within the castle. *Voting will be as follows: **Votes with at least five complete and relevant sentences count as a full vote. **Votes with one sentence do not count. **All other votes count as a half vote. **Any well-reasoned counter-arguments that aren't subjected to a well-reasoned rebuttal can lower a vote by half a point. **Simply stating overwhelming numbers is not a reason *All generals have a General's Kit, which includes: **A telescope / looking glass for his personal use and others for the commanders **Several maps of the area **Locations of friendly supply lines **Various support personnel: a quartermaster corps, cooking corps, medical corps, and religious services Battle 0 Months, 0 Days, 18 Hours. Lloyd sits in his tent, examining the candle-lit contents of the small chest he was given – part of the terms of this contract. The exact details of the contract were hazy to him, but all he knew was that he had to take the castle before him. He looks up from a remarkable well-drawn birds-eye of the area to the eight figures standing before him. “Crossbow Commander Errol, step forward.” “Yes, sir.” One man of the eight stepped forth, in plated chainmail not unlike Lloyd’s own. “Siege Commander Dante, you as well,” A second man, also in plated mail, but with a helmet, steps forward and salutes. “And you, High Marshall Mateus,” One of the two figures in two layers of plated fabric steps forth. “Dante, you’re under Mateus for the moment. Errol, 10 squads of your crossbowmen are under him as well. Mateus, coordinate the crossbowmen to give covering fire so that we can properly set up the siege weapons. Errol, have the remaining 15 squads harass the defenders on the walls. You three are dismissed.” “Cavalry Commander Boscogn, step forward…” Within the castle itself, Celina was giving her own, much simpler orders to her troops, who are all gathered in the castle’s main hall, about to have a dinner. “Men on the cannons! Fire at the enemy. Pound them hard all night,” she said, but stopped as she heard a poorly disguised whisper from the back ranks “She wants a pounding all night? I can…” Celina glares at the speaker until he shuts up and apologizes. “Crossbowmen, when morning comes rain bolts down on them,” though again she hears an interruption. “Comes? Just leave it to …” Celina glares again. “Infantry, train and wait until there’s a breakthrough. Everyone is dismissed. Good night, and eat well.” She walks over to the officer’s table and sits down, and everyone starts eating. Back outside, Lloyd is finishing up his orders. “… Have your Infantrymen and the Reserve train with the shock troops. Not to exhaustion, but don’t let your skills flag, either. You are dismissed.” The last few generals leave the tent. He looks at the captain of his guard. “Test my food and tent for whatever it is you fear. I need to eat and sleep.” 1 Month, 13 Days, 16 Hours. Lloyd is walking along the south side of the encirclement, examining the preparations. He’d lost several men to his opponent’s cannons and archers already, not to mention the desertions. Since there were too many of the archers to deal with at the moment, he simply takes aim with his Recurve bow at one of the cannoneers. He fires, and quickly reloads and takes aim again. He fires a second shot, and retreats, meeting up with the squad of crossbowmen and his guard. “You grazed him the second time, sir.” The Squad Commander “Should’ve stayed in my tent, then. But they’ll be looking for where I was; try further up that way.” At that moment, a messenger came up to him. One of Boscogn’s light cavalry. He unrolled the message, and smiled. “I’ll be back. There’s a matter of some import to take care of. Inside the castle, Celina is poring over the maps, trying how to best defend the castle. Her enemy had delayed one supply route with repeated attacks – she effectively only had one to work with. And it was enough of a headache keeping her people fed, not to mention they were mysteriously down about 50 men. Add that to those killed by the enemy’s crossbowmen, and she’d count herself lucky if she could keep their siege weapons down. Then she heard a soft, wet thump on her roof. And then another. And yet more. It sounded almost like rain. Hearing yells from the castle, she walks out to see what is happening and sees dismembered body parts raining down. She ducks just in time to dodge a phallus to the face. Using her suctum as an impromptu umbrella, she quickly runs about restoring order. After she’s calmed her men, one of her officers comes up to her, holing a rather distinctive arrow. “Someone fired two of these at one of our cannoneers this morning, ma’am. It’s poisoned, so be careful. It grazed him, but he’s in the infirmary right now,” the officer says. “Will he live?” “Probably, but he’s not going to enjoy the next couple of days. I could hear his screams from outside.” “This looks like… Oh, no. We’re up against Lloyd. The mercenary general.” Her officer pales. Lloyd looks at the aftermath of the meat bombardment through his telescope. He’d managed to build his trebuchet in secret, and used them to bombard the enemy with dead flesh. His High Marshalls used the ensuing moment of panic to have the mining teams start tunneling. Turning back to the tent behind him, he enters and walks down to the makeshift underground prison his mining team built, turning to face the prisoner. “Well well, the one deserter my men didn’t shoot. I’ve got a couple questions for you. Don’t make me use force.” 2 Months, 5 Days, 15 Hours. Celina is pacing back and forth in her command room, trying to determine what went wrong. The dead body bombardment had slowed, though chunks of retted meat were still flying over the walls. About a third of her remaining force was sick, the other third were starving, and the final third were considering joining the other half of her former army. Lloyd had cut off both supply lines, and had been raining down jars of fire for the past night with her trebuchets. Deciding it was time to take a look around, she stalks out of her quarters – skirting around piles of rubble – and walks up to the battlements near the gates, taking cover between the husks of two cannons as she surveys her opponent’s newest offensive. Lloyd stands watch as the preparations for a new assault begin. He’s abandoned the Belfry – too many construction problems, and the walls were still defended enough for ladders. His canons would instead bombard the front gate, or as close to it as he can get. The Trebuchet would provide covering fire. Chuckling at his own mental pun, he surveys his troops to see if they are ready. Satisfied, he salutes the High Marshalls in charge of the ground assault and moves up to take personal command of the siege weaponry. “Give it all you’ve got – Celina can’t hold out much longer. That last deserter said she was down to less than half strength.” The cannons started firing, making quite a racket. The trebuchet launched clusters of Greek Fire jars in the castle’s general direction, making it harder for the defenders to maneuver. Lloyd takes out his looking glass and sees that the cannonballs are having little effect – the door is too small a target, and when they hit it the wood is too thick. “Curse me for a fool. Why didn’t I see it before?” Lloyd mutters to himself, before standing up and bellowing out his new orders: “Cannons! Trebuchet! Switch roles! Cannons, cover the trebuchet while it hits the gate with the fire!” The cannonneers and trebuchet operators look at him in bewilderment. “The door’s fucking wood. I’ve been thinking the wrong way. Breaking it down is a pain, so let’s burn it!” Hearing his rationale, and slightly disconcerted by the diabolical laughter, the crews do as he says. In short order, the gates are breached. “Okay, everyone stop. Gather your melee weapons and meet me at the staging area.” Once his army is gathered around him – still 8,000 strong after two months – they start to charge up towards the castle, under the covering fire from the crossbowmen. The castle is taken by storm, with small pockets of vicious, close-quarters fighting. In the end, Lloyd’s troops have taken 1,500 enemy troops prisoner, and have lost 1,000 men. Lloyd seizes the castle, and goes for a walk along the battlements. Passing the gate, he finds a badly-burned corpse amongst several broken fire jars, as well as two cannons. There’s a brief flash of light, and he gets transported back to the waiting area. End of Siege. Statistics: Total Time: 2 Months, 5 Days, 17 Hours, 30 Minutes Total losses: 9,000 men. :Celina: 6,000 :Lloyd: 3,000 Category:Blog posts